My works explore everyday objects with the use of photography and collage elements, which are turned into scarp contoured, sculptural expressions. The precise and clean cut composition of colour and shape suggests, in a poetic, consistent language, that the fragmentation of contemporary, nomadic, globalised life does not drain it of meaning. The works show the process of navigating through the rapid flow of visual impressions that the contemporary consumer is constantly confronted with.
"One of the most influential innovators of modern collage." – Gestalten
Sergei Sviatchenko was born in Ukraine and lives and works in Viborg, Denmark since 1990. He graduated from the Kharkov Academy of Art and Architecture in 1975 and studied PhD at the Kiev School of Architecture. A provocateur in the world of contemporary art , Sviatchenko's collages and paintings have been exhibited in Denmark, Germany, Italy, France, England, Canada, and the USA and featured in celebrated magazines such as Dazed & Confused, AnOther, Kilimanjaro, Varoom, Elephant, This is a magazine, Rojo, Viewpoint and Blueprint.
Drawing on and harnessing all of the cultural tides he has experienced in 35 years of image-making, Sviatchenko’s oeuvre spans the known and the unimaginable. It cuts through the boundaries of traditional and contemporary visuals to merge pop culture with politics, personal memory with collective histories, and architecture and science with the logic of dreams.
Sviatchenko has worked with a broad range of subjects and media. He experiments, challenges, and abolishes where other artists move within established comfort zones. From his early work as a conceptual artist and collage maker, he moved on to abstract painting and has done commissions and large-scale murals for international brands and institutions. More recently, Sviatchenko has created the fashion-forward photography project Close Up and Private, which looks to capture the spirit of modern style, as seen through the subtle shades of the individual. Through these details a complex discourse between clothing, fashion and image takes form, offering new perspectives on contemporary fashion and identity.
With a portfolio and methodology in perpetual evolution, his influences include modernism, surrealism, and rock music.
In our world of sensory overload, Sergei Sviatchenko stands out as an artist with unique vision. This vision is also documented in Gestalten’s release Everything Goes Right & Left If You Want It, the first comprehensive collection of Sviatchenko’s collage and painting.
In October 2014 SCHLEBRÜGGE.EDITOR published the first monograph Sergei Sviatchenko:Collages to focus exclusively on the prolific collage output of Sergei Sviatchenko, a leading figure in the contemporary collage world. Edited by Rick Poynor, a prominent British writer, lecturer and curator, specializing in visual culture, whose essay provides an engaging critical overview, it gathers Sviatchenko’s most significant work from the past 10 years and shows little seen collages from his early years in Ukraine before he moved in 1990 to live and work in Denmark.
In April 2009 he founded Close Up And Private, is an on-going photo art project , dedicated to the visual language of style and celebrating classic details and contemporary looks through unique photographic documentary.
Сергей Святченко (1952) родился в Харькове, где изучал искусство и архитектуру, более 25 лет живёт и работает в Дании. С 1990 года участвует в групповых и персональных выставках в Дании, Германии, Италии, Франции, Канаде, Великобритании и США. В основном занимается фотографией, видео, инсталляцией и живописью. В своих работах использует обычные предметы, превращая их с помощью фотографии и коллажа в остроочерченные скульптурные композиции. В 2002 он основал Senko Studio, некоммерческую художественную галерею в г. Виборг (Дания), где в течение семи лет организовывал в качестве куратора выставки молодых талантливых художников и фотографов.
В 2003 году в издательстве «Borgen» вышла монография «Святченко».
В 2006 году в издательстве Hovedland вышла монография «Сергей Святченко.Живопись и другое. 1991-2006».
В 2009 году создал уникальный фотографический арт-проект Close Up and Private, посвященный визуальному языку классического стиля в одежде.
В конце 2012 года в в берлинском издательстве Гестальтен /Gestalten/ вышла двухтомная монография ”Everything goes right and left if you want it”, а в конце 2014 года австрийское издательство SCHLEBRÜGGE.EDITOR в Вене напечатало книгу «Сергей Святченко: Коллажи» под редакцией английского куратора Рика Пойнора.
Считается одним из самых влиятельных и выдающихся коллажистов в современном изобразительном искусстве.
Победитель премии Yellow Pencil Award 2007, Лондон.
Член Союза художников и графиков Дании.